Donald Trump’s penchant for communicating via Twitter while ignoring mainstream media is rewriting all the rules.

Take this question, for example. If a president has chosen Twitter to communicate with the people he represents, is it ethical to “block” people from following him and, thus, hearing what he has to say?

“It makes me laugh in a way that’s not funny,” activist Heather Spohr, 37, a blogger and freelance writer, tells the Los Angeles Times. “I can’t see the tweets of the president-elect. He’s going to be my president. It’s absurd.”

“The president should speak to all Americans directly and not filter people out,” Timothy Naftali, a presidential historian at New York University, tells the Times. “Are people blocked from watching television or listening to radio when a president gives an address? The president-elect needs to get used to the idea that presidential words matter. And everyone needs access to those words.”

Whoever saw this sort of question coming?

Last night, predictably, Saturday Night Live poked at the president-elect’s love of the social media tool.

About the blogger

Bob Collins has been with Minnesota Public Radio since 1992, emigrating to Minnesota from Massachusetts. He was senior editor of news in the ’90s, ran MPR’s political unit, created the MPR News regional website, invented the popular Select A Candidate, started several blogs, and every day laments that his Minnesota Fantasy Legislature project never caught on.

NewsCut is a blog featuring observations about the news. It provides a forum for an online discussion and debate about events that might not typically make the front page. NewsCut posts are not news stories.